A nomadic life, chronicled in Expat Life Slice by Slice, has seen Anglo-Australian Apple Gidley live and work in twelve countries. Her roles have been varied – editor, intercultural trainer for multi-national corporations, British Honorary Consul to a small despotic country in West Africa, among others.

Crucian Fusion: Essays, Tales and Conversations (2020) is a love letter to St Croix, a place she called home for ten are stories, and are real and imagined, about her time living in the Caribbean.

Gidley’s historical novels include: Fireburn (2017) and the sequel, Transfer (2019) which take place in the Danish West Indies (now the US Virgin Islands) of the late 1800s; Have You Eaten Rice Today? (Vine Leaves Press 2022) a dual time story describes the communist uprising of 1950s Malaya and Australia juxtaposed with modern England and Malaysia. Released in November 2025 by VLP, Annie’s Day, is a wartime story from an Australian army nurse’s perspective.

Finding Serenissima, (VLP, March 2025) again published by Vine Leaves Press is Gidley’s first contemporary novel, with Venice as the backdrop. 

Gidley is currently in the research phase of her next novel – that translates as travel!

Themes of race, class, friendship and loss as well as love – sometimes forbidden – found in unexpected places run throughout Gidley’s books, which take place in often lesser known parts of the world, both modern and historical.

Having run the Writer’s Circle of St Croix for seven years, Gidley knows the benefit of a supportive critique group and now,  relocated to South Cambridgeshire, England, she has started The Ickleton Jotters. She speaks at book clubs, fairs, workshops and writing retreats.

Gidley has written travel articles and pieces about expatriate living for numerous magazines – both print and online. She also writes A Broad View – a sporadic blog.